Community may contribute to restoring soul

Rev. Dr. Randy Hammer delivers the sermon ”Restoration for the Soul“,  referring to Thomas Moore’s book, Care of the Soul on 30 October 2011. Hammer says, “Everywhere we turn we can see people who are suffering emotional pain and inner hurt; people who are confused or fearful; people who are brokenhearted or lonely; people who are despondent or clinically depressed. The truth is, the soul of a person can become ill.” After sharing his definition of soul, Hammer considers ways to restore soul and turns to Moore’s book for support. Hammer describes a vital spirituality and community as primary avenues to soul restoration. He includes Moore’s observation, “The soul needs an intense, full-bodied spiritual life as much as and in the same way that the body needs food.”

Hammer’s site includes, “After serving for six years as minister of First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, of Albany, New York, his most recent position is minister of the United Church, Chapel on the Hill, of Oak Ridge, Tennessee.”

Today, Thomas Moore (@thomasmooreSoul) tweets, "We all get sick occasionally in body, soul or spirit and need someone to heal us. We're all potential healers and could sharpen our skills," which reinforces Hammer's focus on helping each other for restoring soul.

Actress Tammy Felice reads Moore's work book

A Q&A profile of Los Angeles-based actress Tammy Felice in Wednesday's Pittsburgh Tribune-Review asks her about the last book she read.

Felice responds: "A Life at Work by Thomas Moore. He's brilliant. I can only read a few pages at a time, because it's so meaningful. I always carry it with me."


Felice played a model in CSI and has had roles in Men of a Certain Age, Femme Fatales,  and Live Fast Die Young.

Artistic images show us the soul of human life

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat quote Thomas Moore's book, The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life in their review of the PBS series "Art of the Western World", hosted by Michael Wood, now available on a three-DVD set. The Brussats write, "Throughout the nine hours of Art of the Western World, we had the same response as Thomas Moore did when he visits museums: we felt our souls come alive while viewing art by Michelangelo, Bernini, Goya, Van Gogh, and Miro. Wood engaged us in such a way that our faculty of reverie was called into play. In moments, we were reminded that a work of art brings out "the radiance." We want to linger and enjoy the painting or sculpture, or architecture." In his book, Moore observes,

"When we make our pilgrimage to the museum, we find images showing what the soul is made of, what my soul is made of. We celebrate those artists who powerfully and beautifully paint the secret sources of our lives. The images, so carefully made, educate our imagination in the precision, depth, range, and focus of human life. In a museum we see more of our souls than we could find through any means of introspective analysis."

Art of the Western World
Directed by Tony Cash, Geoff Dunlop
Athena Learning 09/11 DVD/VHS
Host: Michael Wood
This review includes the nine themes and spiritual exercises to accompany the program, supported by Shawn McNiff's view of art: "The pictures carry medicines, energies, creative spirits, and vitality that they will give to you freely."

Be a compassionate catalyst during dark times

Today Dream Catalyst offers "Let Go and Let God" as a way to experience a dark night of the soul. Singapore's Bernadette Chua blogs about discipline and delight helping her through dark times. She quotes Thomas Moore's book, Dark Nights of the Soul: "Maybe your dark night is a gestation, a coming into being of a level of existence you have never dreamed of. Maybe your dark night is one big ironical challenge, just the opposite of what it appears to be - not a dying, but a birthing."

Chua follows this quote with her own response:

"We know this is great. We want it. Yet we find ourselves stuck in the same repeating patterns till a time comes when we can let go and truly let God. The question is how to do this?

The letter 'D' comes to mind. It is the letter that transforms go to God. Discipline and delight are two qualities that helped me to be able to let go and let God. Perhaps it would be useful for those of you who are going through a dark night right now.

She recommends supporting others with compassion: "Be a compassionate catalyst."

Moore stresses mystery and friendship in lecture

Anne Whitaker describes Thomas Moore's recent lecture about Care of the Soul in Medicine in Glasgow in her blog post "“Soul is about your friends” : an encounter with writer and therapist Thomas Moore". Whitaker includes,

"I found meeting Thomas refreshing and cheering – found him humorous, laid back, wearing his erudition lightly. His very informal “lecture”, very much open to audience participation, was timeous in its theme: the importance of healing the whole person, rather than simply treating the body, within the health care system. Timeous because of revelations in the UK press, in the very week of his talk,  concerning the lack of compassion and due attention paid to individual’s emotional needs and their dignity in too many instances in too many hospitals."

She writes that Moore emphasized mystery and friendship in his talk and that he hopes professional heath workers offer a sense of friendliness in their patient encounters.

Thomas Moore talks about medicine in Glasgow

Doctor Bob Leckridge posts his reactions to meeting Thomas Moore and to hearing Moore lecture in Glasgow this week under Thomas Moore — care of the soul". Leckridge writes about his own first consultations using integrative medicine: "The process of a holistic, non-judgemental, compassionate consultation forms a strong (what Thomas would call “soul”) connection. The patient feels heard, they feel felt, they feel understood. However, I thought it was great to be reminded that we are all unknowable, that we all have unfathomable depths. It sets up a certain humility of practice and of living." He reports that Moore started his talk with a focus on mystery and "how none of us is completely knowable."